You have to believe! Client service is not just a mission statement; it’s a philosophy to be lived with.

What makes this statement more than a cliché in your company’s will be the hands on behaviour that “puts money where the mouth is.” Take the subject of integrity for example. Companies that are successful in this area take an obsessive, almost neurotic approach to any potential conflict of interest. There can never appear to be a conflict interest and never try to work “both sides of the street.”

  1. 1. Watch your appearance.

Your staff dress should try to match that of the client. If in doubt, the default is always business attire. It’s a respectful attitude that is no longer evident in the behaviour and practices of many of today’s leading professional services firms.

  1. 2. Treat them equally.

It always comes back to mutual dignity and respect. Customers expect nothing more than common courtesy in your transactions. This demands viewing the experience through their eyes. As simple as this may seem, it’s now more the exception than the rule. Employees no longer have the time, motivation or training to practice the old time art of forging empathy with customer.

In truth, customer empathy seems well on its way to extinction, in our relationships, politics and business transactions. It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be so. The same should hold true on the internal front. Addressing the issue of “internal customer”, loyalty may require a lot of listening…visiting your employees…encouraging them to contact you or your staff with questions and concerns.

  1. 3. The customer is always right.

These words have been spoken by managers for years and are still relevant today. Alex Mandossan, one of the highly successful business and marketing consultants, stresses the importance of “exceed your customer’s needs and expectation”. If you go that extra mile, customers will reward you with their loyalty.

  1. 4. It’s all about relationship.

Winning customer loyalty starts from managing customer relationship. One of the reasons why so many businesses fail is that all their measurements, analysis and learning revolves around profit making and virtually nothing on value creation. Their CEO’s only become aware of the problems only when profits start to fall, and in struggle to fix short-term profits, they concentrate on the symptoms and miss the underlying cause (value creation). Building a strong customer relationship should be set as the primary goal of a company’s marketing practice and all marketing functions should be should serve to the enhancement of a company’s customer relationship.

Secondly, customer relationship should be defined and constructed based on customer’s basic needs. In the “customer centre” customer relationship practice, needs constructs value and value determines customer relationship. Customer relationship should also be measured and improved in market competitions.